Category Archives: Islam

Robert Jenrick criticised for saying people shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ should be arrested

Posted on by

Critics call Tory leadership candidate’s comments around far-right protests ‘nasty divisive rhetoric’

Robert Jenrick has been criticised by a rival for the Conservative leadership and Muslim parliamentarians for saying police should “immediately arrest” any protesters shouting “Allahu Akbar”, the Arabic phrase that means God is great.

The former immigration minister was speaking on Sky News about the accusations that police have been treating far-right marches and violence more harshly than other protests.

Continue reading...

‘We got failed by the police’: how veterans of Leeds riots stepped in to defuse disorder

Posted on by

A group of Muslim men put themselves in danger to calm unrest in Harehills over children being taken into care

Nadsy Qurban bent his neck to show how the crown of his head was ­covered in a number of burns, each the size of coins. “The smell was like I’m burning some goat or something, like I’m cooking some goat. That’s how bad it was,” he said.

Needless to say, it hurt. But a week on, the burns he gained while putting out fires during unrest in the Harehills area of Leeds are ­starting to heal.

Continue reading...

French athlete may swap hijab for a cap to avoid Olympic opening ceremony ban

Posted on by

Sounkamba Sylla reportedly reaches compromise after France’s strict laws on secularism threatened to bar her

A French sprinter is expected to swap her headscarf for a cap in order to participate in the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics, in a compromise reportedly struck after the country’s strict laws on secularism threatened to bar her from the event.

Earlier this week Sounkamba Sylla, a Muslim member of France’s 400m women’s and mixed relay teams, said she would not be able to take part in Friday’s ceremony because she wears a hijab.

Continue reading...

Extremist Israeli minister makes provocative visit to al-Aqsa mosque

Posted on by

Itamar Ben-Gvir, who seeks to disrupt ceasefire talks, makes video at contested holy site in Jerusalem

Israel’s extremist national security minister has visited the holiest Muslim site in Jerusalem, recording a video saying he went to pray, in a provocative move as he seeks to disrupt ceasefire talks.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, an ultranationalist and champion of the settler movement, recorded footage at al-Aqsa mosque compound, also known as the Temple Mount, a site holy to Muslims and Jews.

Continue reading...

Labor ‘clearly afraid’ of backlash after taking Islamic community for granted, Muslim Votes Matter says

Posted on by

Exclusive: Muslim voters are ‘grossly underrepresented at all levels of government’, Ghaith Krayem says

One of the new organisations seeking to mobilise Australian Muslims at the next federal election has hit back at “almost farcical” attempts to discredit the movement, insisting the Labor government is “clearly afraid”.

Ghaith Krayem, a spokesperson for Muslim Votes Matter, said despite criticism from major party politicians and media, the movement was an “inclusive initiative that hopes to uplift representation for minority groups across the country”.

Continue reading...

Labour rejects JD Vance ‘first Islamist country with nuclear weapons’ remarks

Posted on by

Deputy PM Angela Rayner says she does not recognise Donald Trump running mate’s ‘characterisation’ of Britain

Senior Labour figures have rejected comments by Donald Trump’s vice-presidential pick, JD Vance, that the UK could become the first “truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon” under the party.

They were reacting to comments that were made by Vance, a junior senator for the state of Ohio who has been announced as Trump’s running mate, at a conference for US conservatives.

Continue reading...

Pakistani breast milk bank closes after Islamic clerics withdraw approval

Posted on by

Doctors deplore decision and point to country’s high neonatal mortality rate as bank, which opened in June, forced to close without taking a single deposit

When he heard a hospital in Karachi was setting up a milk bank for babies, the news was a “huge relief” to Mohammad Munawwar.

With his wife very sick and their premature son Ayan in hospital, the 52-year-old father had had to collect milk five or six times a day from different female relatives who were breastfeeding their own babies.

Continue reading...

Independent Muslim who beat Labour in Leicester says victory was not ‘sectarian’

Posted on by

Shockat Adam says he is not a single-issue MP, but will fight on NHS and housing as well as Gaza

The man who pulled off a shock victory at the general election by ousting shadow cabinet member Jonathan Ashworth has criticised claims that the wave of strong showings by independent Muslim candidates represents the rise of “sectarian” voting.

Shockat Adam, an optometrist, caused a huge upset by beating Ashworth, the shadow paymaster general and a familiar face in Labour’s election campaign, to become the new MP for Leicester South.

Continue reading...

‘Here I found respect for who I am’: the French citizens who choose to leave

Posted on by

Scores of highly qualified French citizens from Muslim backgrounds have left the country in recent years

Even as she climbed up the corporate ladder in France, Ophélie Rizki’s after-work routine remained unchanged. Each evening as she got into her car to drive home, she would make a beeline for her headscarf, feeling herself slowly becoming whole again as she covered her hair.

She had never been explicitly told that she couldn’t wear her hijab at work, nor had she asked. But as politicians in France continued to spar over headscarves, two decades after parliament voted to ban them in school, she worried about the impact that choosing to keep her hair covered would have on her career. “You don’t ask the question, you know it’s not something you can do,” she said.

Continue reading...

At least 1,300 hajj pilgrims died during extreme heat, Saudi Arabia says

Posted on by

Riyadh says more than four-fifths did not have permit to make pilgrimage to Mecca, where temperatures hit 51.8C

At least 1,300 people have died during the hajj pilgrimage, which took place during intense heat, Saudi Arabia has said, adding that most of the deceased did not have official permits.

“Regrettably, the number of mortalities reached 1,301, with 83% being unauthorised to perform hajj and having walked long distances under direct sunlight, without adequate shelter or comfort,” the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

Continue reading...

Egypt to prosecute travel agents for ‘fraudulent’ hajj trips

Posted on by

PM orders 16 companies to be stripped of licences amid hundreds of deaths, many attributed to extreme heat

The Egyptian prime minister, Mostafa Madbouly, has ordered 16 tourism companies to be stripped of their licences and referred their managers to the public prosecutor’s office for illegally facilitating pilgrims’ travel to Mecca, the cabinet has said.

The order came after various countries reported more than 1,100 deaths, many attributed to high heat, during this year’s hajj.

Continue reading...

‘They’re trying to divide us’: Muslims in France voice fears over rise of far right

Posted on by

People in Lyon say country at dangerous juncture in snap elections after National Rally’s EU parliamentary gains

They marched through the narrow streets of Lyon’s medieval old town, about three dozen of them, emboldened after the French far-right gains in the European elections. Masks covering their faces, they wound past the hidden passageways that provided cover for the resistance during the second world war, chanting: “We are fucking Nazis” and “Islam out of Europe”.

For some in this French city, last week’s far-right demonstration, captured on video, was a chilling reminder of just how much is at stake in the snap parliamentary elections that could see the French far-right lead government.

Continue reading...

One man’s desperate search for wife as more than 1,000 hajj pilgrims die in extreme heat

Posted on by

Hoda Nagib and her husband had walked 20km in the baking sun in Saudi Arabia while on Mecca pilgrimage

Hoda Nagib and her husband had walked 20km in the baking sun in Saudi Arabia when she told him that she needed to rest. The couple, who are in their 60s, had just scaled Mount Arafat, along with thousands of other white-robed pilgrims on the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, where temperatures as high as 51.8C have been recorded in the shade in recent days.

Nagib’s husband left her to perform a ritual known as the stoning of the devil. When he returned she had disappeared, their neighbour Walaa Roshdy explained.

Continue reading...

Search for missing pilgrims continues after hajj heat deaths

Posted on by

Relatives seek news of missing loved ones after hundreds reported dead as temperatures hit 51.8C in Saudi Arabia

Friends and family of missing hajj pilgrims have been searching hospitals and pleading online for news, fearing the worst after hundreds died during the annual rites in Saudi Arabia.

Arab diplomats on Tuesday told Agence France-Presse at least 550 pilgrims had died this year, the majority due to heat-related illnesses after temperatures reached 51.8C (125F) in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city.

Continue reading...

China has renamed hundreds of Uyghur villages and towns, say human rights groups

Posted on by

Report finds that religious, historical and cultural references have been removed in crackdown by Beijing

Hundreds of Uyghur villages and towns have been renamed by Chinese authorities to remove religious or cultural references, with many replaced by names reflecting Communist party ideology, a report has found.

Research published on Wednesday by Human Rights Watch and the Norway-based organisation Uyghur Hjelp documents about 630 communities that have been renamed in this way by the government, mostly during the height of a crackdown on Uyghurs that several governments and human rights bodies have called a genocide.

Continue reading...

More than 550 hajj pilgrims die in Mecca as temperatures exceed 50C

Posted on by

At least 320 of the dead are from Egypt and Saudi officials report treating more than 2,000 people for heat stress

At least 550 pilgrims have died during the hajj, underscoring the gruelling nature of the pilgrimage which again unfolded in scorching temperatures this year.

At least 323 of those who died were Egyptians, most of them succumbing to heat-related illnesses, the two Arab diplomats coordinating their countries’ responses told AFP.

Continue reading...

At least 14 pilgrims die during hajj pilgrimage amid soaring temperatures

Posted on by

Jordanians died in Saudi Arabia after suffering heatstroke, said officials, with temperatures reaching 47C in Mecca

At least 14 Jordanian pilgrims have died while on the hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia as temperatures soar in the kingdom.

Jordan’s foreign ministry said “14 Jordanian pilgrims died and 17 others were missing” during the performance of hajj rituals. It said its nationals had died “after suffering sun stroke due to the extreme heatwave” and that it had coordinated with Saudi authorities to bury the dead in Saudi Arabia, or transfer them to Jordan.

Continue reading...

Labour sends activists to 13 seats where it fears losing Muslim voters over Gaza

Posted on by

Concern continues after local elections and George Galloway win that party’s position on Israel-Gaza war still eroding support

Labour is directing activists to campaign in seats with substantial Muslim populations, over fears that some voters have been alienated by the party’s stance on Gaza.

Its campaigning efforts are mostly being concentrated on Conservative and SNP seats in an attempt to secure a potentially record-breaking majority. However, there are 13 Labour-held seats where Muslims make up at least a fifth of the electorate which the party is telling its activists to target.

Continue reading...

Narendra Modi loses aura of invincibility as predicted landslide fails to materialise

Posted on by

Exit polls had projected overwhelming victory for the BJP and an even stronger mandate for India’s strongman

India’s elections may return Narendra Modi to power for a third term but Tuesday’s results did not have the flavour of victory for the strongman prime minister.

Indeed, as the early counts of the votes began to roll in, it was clear this was going to be one of the most humbling moments for Modi and his Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) in over a decade.

Continue reading...

Last major Arabic-style mosque in China loses its domes

Posted on by

Exclusive: Experts say changes to Grand Mosque of Shadian mark completion of five-year sinification campaign

The last major mosque in China to have retained Arabic-style features has lost its domes and had its minarets radically modified, marking what experts say is the completion of a government campaign to sinicise the country’s Muslim places of worship.

The Grand Mosque of Shadian, one of China’s biggest and grandest mosques, towers over the small town from which it takes its name in south-western Yunnan province.

Continue reading...